8 Wireless uses for your Android phone

The mobile phone has gone from being just another communication device to a pocketable computer of sorts. With more and more power and features being added to the device, there’s a whole lot of functionality that the device has to offer. The possibilities are somewhat endless, but a layman is pretty unaware of many of these. We’re looking at some of these things that we can do with our Android smartphones using a few apps. Of course, keep in mind that your phone needs to have some of these feature or OS updates in place. All the apps we've mentioned are free for download. Use your phone as a Wi-Fi router : This is one of the simplest things to try out. If you have an EDGE or 3G Internet connection, you can easily share it with others, on-the-go. This way you can have Internet connectivity shared amongst other devices such as Wi-Fi only tablet or netbook. The feature is accessible under the Settings > Wireless Networks > Tethering menu. You may also find a 3G Hotspot app in the app drawer, which lets you share the connection. Remember that you’ll be billed according to the data plan scheme that you’ve chosen, so use the feature with some caution.

Top 10 Features of iPhone 5

Top 10 Features of iPhone 5 :

1. The phone has a 4-inch Retina display with a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi.

2. The iPhone 5 weighs 112g, and is 20 per cent lighter than the iPhone 4S.

Apple's big iPhone launch: What could go wrong ?

Apple's launch on Wednesday in San Francisco will kick off what analysts have repeatedly predicted was the biggest smartphone upgrade cycle in history. With those proclamations leading to what could be ridiculously high expectations, it's worth pondering the downside.

Now I'm not going to be dumb enough to doubt that Apple's iPhone 5 will outsell iPhone 4S by a wide margin. In fact, Apple's latest iPhone will launch with multiple carriers around the world. It's a global phone and distribution alone will ensure its success.

The wild card here will be the duration of this iPhone upgrade cycle. Meanwhile, there are other worries for the latest iPhone. Will these concerns materialize? Who knows, but it's certainly worth highlighting them amid the sea of gushing coverage on deck.

Let's play the contrarian game. Here's a look at the key wild cards surrounding the iPhone launch:

Carrier upgrade cycles. Apple got a healthy bump from the iPhone 4S launch. Those iPhone buyers in the U.S. are locked into two year contracts and few will pay heavy penalties to upgrade to the latest greatest Apple smartphone. Meanwhile, carriers won't allow customers to upgrade until they are 20 months into their contracts. That means that customers are locked into their old iPhones just a bit longer. As a result, Apple could see more steady demand over time as long as consumers don't decide after six months to wait around the iPhone 6.

Nokia Launched Cheap Touch-screen Phone Models : Asha 305, 306, 311

Nokia has come up with its first three basic phone models with large touch screens and launched Asha 305, Asha 306 and Asha 311 in the market which are the cheapest touch-screen model produced by the manufacturer.

Nokia Asha 305, 306 and 311 : Nokia's Cheapest Touch-Screen Handsets

Nokia launches two new handsets under 'Asha' range - Nokia 305 and Nokia 311

NEW DELHI: Aimed at strengthening its mobile Internet devices portfolio, Finnish handset maker Nokia today launched two new devices in the country under its 'Asha' range of phones.

The Asha 305 and Asha 311 are equipped with cloud accelerated Nokia browser, which will compresses data by as much as 85 per cent, helping users browse the Internet faster and lower their spend on data charges.

"The Nokia Asha family has received tremendous consumer response. With the launch of Nokia Asha touchrange, we are strengthening our range of mobile Internet devices," Nokia India Director Marketing Viral Oza told reporters here.

Nokia 305

Microsoft Denies Rumours Of Launching Its Own WP8 Smartphone

We had recently heard rumours suggesting that Microsoft was coming up with a Windows Phone 8 device of its own. This didn't seem like a long shot, given that MS had just stepped into the hardware game with the announcement of its Surface tablets. However, the software giant has now come out in the open to deny this rumour.

The company's Senior Marketing Manager, Greg Sullivan rubbished these rumours in an interview with Information Week. He simply said: "No, we do not [build our own phones]", and further added:"We have a strong ecosystem of partners that we are very satisfied with". The denial comes after "industry sources" and analysts had claimed the possibility, which was followed by some convincing fan concepts of the device.

With Microsoft having detailed its plans for the WP8 OS, we are not surprised at the denial. Most of the rumours had sparked only after the company showed off its Surface tablets. Other OEMs are prepping their own Windows 8 slates, but Microsoft doesn't seem to be bothered about it. With a denial coming from the horse's mouth itself, it's safe to say that the rumour can finally be put to rest.

Galaxy S III to launch in India on May 31

The Most awaited S3

We’ve just confirmed from sources close to us that Samsung is planning on announcing the Galaxy S III, their new flagship device, on the 31st of May in New Delhi. We are not too sure whether this will be a hard launch or one just on paper, but I guess we’ll find out in a couple of days. The Korean company already started with their pre-bookings for India a while back, so those who have pre-booked the phone will most likely be among the first to receive it. There’s still no word on the final price of the phone, although rumours floating around the Internet suggest a price tag of Rs.42,000. This could very well be the MRP of the device, so the actual street price could be a lot lower, and it better be if they want to compete with HTC’s One X. This will be the second quad-core handset to hit the streets and we’ll try and bring you guys the play by play of the event, as and when it unfolds. 

Karbonn officially launches the A9 Android smartphone

SmartPhone at Decent Price

Karbonn mobile is, like the rest of the local handset makers, cashing in on the Android boom and has only recently launched yet another addition to their Android range of budget smartphones. The Karbonn A9 that’s available on Infibeam.com has just made it out and comes equipped with interesting features that could make it a worthy competitor in the lower budget smartphone segment. Loaded up with a 1 GHz processor, the Karbonn A9 will come with Android Gingerbread aka v2.3.6 as the operating system. Keeping the competition in mind, Karbonn has also incorporated a dual-SIM (GSM + GSM) functionality with the A9 smartphone allowing users to have two numbers run simultaneously on the handset. 

Lava Launches First Intel-powered Smartphone For Rs 22,000

Lava International Ltd has launched XOLO X900, the first smartphone with Intel inside. The mobile phone runs on the Android operating system (OS) and will be available for Rs 22,000. The partnership between Lava and Intel was first announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona early this year. Let’s have a look at the specifications of the device. The mobile phone has a 4.03 inch TFT LCD capacitive touch screen display (1024×600 pixel resolution) and it runs on the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS (later upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich). The highlight of the device is its processor, which is a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor with Hyper Threading that the company claims will provide faster speeds and better multi-tasking performance. XOLO X900 has 1GB of RAM and comes with 16GB of internal memory.

Beginning of the end of feature phone: TMI survey

Among the top 25 most searched handsets, a whopping 21 models are smartphones.

There seems to be a growing interest and awareness among Indian consumers about smartphones, the Handset Hotlist survey (May, 2012) suggests. In the survey, brought out by The Mobile Indian (www.themobileindian.com), 21 of the 25 handsets that made it to the list are smartphones.

Almost every month, two smartphones are being launched in India and one of them is usually an entry level or mid-level phone. Notably, today smartphones are available in the market for as low as Rs 3,000 and they offer better utility than feature phones.

Fuel Cell aims to charge your smartphone for two weeks

A new portable USB fuel cell has been developed by Lilliputian Systems that aims to keep your smartphone powered for close to a fortnight, without the need for you to go to a wall socket to juice your phone up via a charger. This new fuel cell will be able to charge your smartphone close to a dozen times, before it runs out of battery – following which, you need to purchase a replacement cartridge.With 4G and quad-core madness entering into the arena, the single most important aspect of smartphones that is taking a hit is the battery life. This exact concern is addressed by this new fuel cell. While it cannot keep your phone battery running longer, it definitely can ensure that you can charge it on the go, without the need of finding a power socket.  

No tie-ups with local handset makers for Windows Phone

Over the last couple of years, the Indian market has shown significant growth. There have been several new players, who’ve cashed upon the openness of the Android platform. In India, we still have a slew of Java devices too. But maybe not everyone is looking to extent the reach of mobile phones to every segment. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman Microsoft India revealed in an interview that the company isn’t looking to tie up with local phone makers for its Windows Phone. “The Windows Phone requires a specification for the user experience. We want to give the same kind of experience that Apple has. This limits the number of manufacturers who can build a product around that,” Mr Pramanik said.

Touch panel shipments may drop to make way for next iPhoneNe

A few weeks ago, the Internet was flooded with various reports of the next iPhone and this is usually the case before any Apple product launch. There have been rumours surrounding the panels that Apple would use for the next iPhone aka iPhone 5 - with an analyst making a graph detailing how the next iPhone would be thinner if it uses the in-cell touch panel technology that the brand is highly believed to use. At the time the report indicated that the upcoming flagship smartphone from Apple would be 2mm thinner than the current generation iPhone 4S. This feat would address the competition as a growing number of smartphones are launched with a size between 7mm to just below 8mm. The latest rumour added to the already long list of iPhone 5 news is a report by Digitimes, which states that since the brand is moving to in-cell touch panel technology for their next iPhone, the shipments of touch panels from TPK Holding and Wintek will drop by this quarter of 2012.

Upcoming Iphone

Samsung Galaxy S III to sell in India for Rs.38,000

After an agonizing wait, Samsung finally raised the curtains on their Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, which is the brand’s flagship smartphone. This handset is the successor to the highly successful Galaxy S II and with this new handset, a range of features had been announced. Samsung claims that its latest smartphone is inspired by nature. It recognizes one’s voice, understands their intention, and lets them share a moment instantly with ease. The Galaxy S III has been designed keeping nature in mind and they have styled it like a pebble. If one was wondering when this handset will be launched in India, then NDTV has just provided the answer to this question. The Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone will be available in India from the first week of June and is expected to launch at an MRP of 38,000.

Coming In June 1st week

Samsung Galaxy S3 launch: Samsung unwraps latest Galaxy rival to iPhone - Galaxy S3

Samsung Electronics unveiled a new top-of-the-range Galaxy smartphone in London on Thursday, updating the most direct rival to Apple's iPhone with a larger touch screen and more powerful processor.

The South Korean technology group, which overtook Finnish company Nokia as the world's biggest cellphone maker earlier this year, said the new Galaxy SIII model would go on sale in some markets in late May and around the world from June.

The blue lights in the launch venue downtown London, echoing the cold rainy day outside, and the background sounds of nature, which Samsung said inspired the design, resulted in a fairly muted atmosphere in the room.

Five ways to make the most of your smartphone

5 Tips for Better Use

Yeah, my smartphone doubles up as my e-book reader, my movie screen and the latest iPod Touch I wish I had. But these roles are among the many that it has consistently donned for more than a year now. It's now time to go against the cliché and try to teach the old digital pet a couple of new trendy tricks. Here's a list of things you can do to get more bang for the bucks you shelled out for that special handset.

Greener than thou

Use your smartie to cut down on your carbon footprint. Download apps like CamCard or Business Card Reader to click and save the details of the people you meet at the next conference. Not only do these apps save the contacts under their respective fields but also give you the option to automatically look them up on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and even get their addresses on Google Maps. It also works with QR codes in case there is one on the contact's business card and can even generate a new one for you to use. You can configure the apps to even recognise e-mail signatures and save it for future use.

Lava XOLO X900 based on Intel Medfield, launched in India

Lava International, together with Intel has just launched their first smartphone based on Intel’s brand new Medfield Atom processors. The Lava X900 will be part of the XOLO series so we can expect more phones to be added over the coming months. We first caught a glimpse of the phone back in January during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Lava has priced this phone quite attractively at Rs.22,000 and should be available shortly. At this price range, the X900 has the Motorola Atrix 2 and the HTC Sensation to answer to so its success or failure all boils down to how good the Atom chip really is and if it can stand up to ARM, a veteran in the mobile phone processor space.

As speed as PC

Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh a.k.a Tango slated for a June release

Nokia’s Lumia 610 will be the first Windows Phone 7.5 Tango or Refresh as it will be officially called, to hit Indian shelves for an estimated price tag of just Rs.11,000. If this actually happens then it’s going to give stiff competition to the mainstream Androids that are currently enjoying the limelight in this price segment. We’ve now learnt, through a Windows centric Spanish blog, that Microsoft will be officially launching Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh sometime in June. This update is designed for low-end WP7 devices that are fitted with 256MB RAM and slower processors making them cheaper to produce while delivering similar experience as Windows Phone Mango.

Top 5 Quad-core Phones

It is no secret that quad-core phones are in a vogue. Quad-core phones are the next best thing in tech. As phones advance like never before, their development ill be sustained only by strong processors which can support heavy softwares, better cameras and superfast Wi-Fi connections. Yes, the era of quad-core phones has begun.

 

So, here we have for you the top 5 quad core phones that you might want to look out for. 

HTC One X
HTC One X is an exciting offering from HTC. It is currently doing pretty good on popularity charts and has opened to good reviews worldwide. Even our own review of the handset is coming soon. Give the features a glance to get your heartbeat going:

 

• Size: 134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm, 130g
• Display:  4.7-inch Super IPS LCD 2 display, 720 x 1280p 
• Memory: 32 GB Inbuilt
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
• OS: Ice Cream Sandwich 
• Processor: 1.5 GHz Tegra 3 quad-core, ULP GeForce GPU
• Camera: 8-megapixel primary, 1.3-megapixel secondary
• Battery: 1800 MHz

 

Although we are trying our best not to spill the beans, but still, here is the thing; the camera is simply sexy. There are so many things you can do with it, it feels like you are clicking in real time with a powerful snapper, may be one of the best cameras on a phone. The processor works like a charm; you can do all smartphone-sy stuff, from browsing the net and chatting to watching trailers and what not. Quad core processors create enough power so companies can fit better cameras and features into a phone – the HTC One X is a fine example of this. 

Price: Rs. 37,899

Report states Galaxy S III will not be very different from the S II

What Next ??

There have been a lot of rumours in the recent past about the Samsung Galaxy S III and one of the hottest topics regarding the smartphone is with respect to its design. From numerous leaked images in the past, indications have pointed to a complete design overhaul and one of these rumours had suggested that the brand would ditch the home button as the latest version of Android does not require it. However, these reports had been rubbished by newer rumours thereby indicating that the much awaited smartphone will indeed feature the home button. However, the hopes of a design change are something potential consumers are certainly looking forward to but the latest report by CNET may disappoint those who are expecting this.